All articles from 2AMT
The news that Chicago is losing the American Theater Company–here’s the Chicago Tribune story–is stunning. Artistic Director Will Davis was let go, and the board has decide…
Another Giving Tuesday, another day spent deleting emails unread and maybe unsubscribing from the places that send more than two in a day. And I work in the arts. But every year, it's the sa…
Let's posit two categories of theatre. To be dramatic (that's what we do, right?) we'll call the first category "Sit-down-and-shut-up" theatre, meaning theatrical productions in which the au…
I often feel alone. My life experiences and the demands of my day-to-day are so specific to my life producing and performing in small budget theatre that it often feels that outside of rehea…
This past weekend on NPR’s Weekend Edition, Scott Simon talked with David Marcus, a senior contributor to The Federalist and the artistic director of a theater company in New York City…
There is good conversation and bad conversation. We've all been party to both. We've all had those talks that go late into the night and feel like you're solving the world. Additive conversa…
It's no accident that ancient and renaissance playwrights were drawn to write plays about heroes and nobles. Not only were they aspirational figures whose lives would be ripe for curiosity b…
I’m almost as busy as you are. In that rush of “on to the next thing” I currently get most of my news on the fly from my Twitter and Facebook feeds. On a quick scroll throu…
After careful consideration and conversation, it’s time. The 2amt hashtag is shifting to #2thtr. This week’s events and hashtag fever have been catalysts, but we’ve been mo…
About six and a half years ago, we started the #2amt hashtag on Twitter. If you’re on this site, you know it’s a conversation about theatre–performance, production, promoti…
The Chicago Reader published as careful and deliberate a piece of investigative journalism covering the arts as I can ever remember reading. Â In the piece Amy Leavitt and Chris Piatt laid…
Effort. Webster's defines effort as "work done by the mind or body: energy used to do something." I spend more time than you can imagine thinking about, analyzing, and trying to minimize eff…
Although I was raised in the Catholic Church, I am not a practicing Catholic. The few times I have been in a house of worship in the past two decades involved either a wedding, a christening…
This post may skate on the edge of self-promotion, because I am going to be drawing attention to a brief e-book I've co-authored; but I have a good story to tell about how this book is an ex…
I spent all day absorbing what people said about New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players's now cancelled performance of The Mikado at NYU's Skirball Center. I read blog posts, groaned at comme…
Why the Mikado is a No-No, and Other Painfully Obvious Realities About Race Representation in the Theatre Nearly 4 years ago, as a fresh face on New York’s scene, I attended the inaugu…
A roundup of articles about the current and recent productions of The Mikado and the controversy surrounding them. Leah Nanako Winkler from Sept 2015: The Mikado in Yellowface is Coming to t…
I have long had an interest in arts groups using transitioning commercial and retail spaces to alleviate space crunch. On hearing that Matt Cosper and his Charlotte-based ensemble XOXO are t…
We are not doing a great job of teaching our actors to care for their instruments properly. This is clear to me when I read (regularly) about an actor in a particularly difficult physical ro…
I have long had an interest in arts groups using transitioning commercial and retail spaces to alleviate space crunch. On hearing that Matt Cosper and his Charlotte-based ensemble XOXO are t…
There is a mental habit formed early in the development of the modern American psyche: the immediate and perpetual recentering of yourself as the underdog. Our prevailing American narrati…
I am not a keynote speaker for TCG this year, but if I were, this is what I would say. The Theatre Communication Group national conference this year is called Game Change. As both…
I’m fascinated by observing chefs interacting with food. Unlike most folks who create they can’t avoid their work outside their “studio”, they need to eat after all. …
I’m in Kannsas City for a TCG gathering about audience engagement that has sort of morphed into a gathering about working across institutional lines. Now this is a topic I’m thor…
Let’s see if I have this straight. Women write about bias–unconscious or not–in an industry, they set up a group to support fellow women in said industry, men immediately c…
I would wager that, when faced with a show you don’t know, you do something similar to the math I do. You cobble together the basic geometry of the show from the elements you do know.�…
Actors are not alone in needing to manage nerves, but compared to most professions, yours is unique in terms of how frequently you are placed in nerve inducing situations in order to get the…
Earlier this month, the Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA) held its 25th annual conference, hosted by the gracious staff at San Francisco Shakespeare Festival; the event was compris…
The 2014-15 theatre season is underway, causing me, desperately, to try not to fret over photos of strangers in first table reads as they begin to train their instruments to say those words …
You don't have to program it during the holidays to sell a bunch of easy tickets. That tactic works for lots of companies though, which made me wonder why. With anything as big as A Christma…
SOLVING THE PROBLEM AND REPAIRING THE DAMAGE As a Pilates teacher/movement consultant who specializes in how clients move/behave within their own environments, I spend a lot of time out of m…
IDENTIFYING THE ISSUE AND ADDRESSING THE REPERCUSSIONS What is required of your body to do your job? As an actor, specifically a stage actor, the better question is what isn't required of yo…
A production of the musical Monty Python’s Spamalot, slated for the South Williamsport Junior/Senior High School in Pennsylvania in 2015, was canceled by the school's principal due to …
Every Little Bit by Jay McAdams (As Communications Director for 24th ST Theatre, I always search for how to relate impact and relevance through story. Along with my own inquiry, I want to st…
Kilroys: A Prequel " Some Essential Women Playwrights of the 20th & 21st Centuries In June, the Kilroys released their fantastic and important list of most recommended new plays by women…
You may be surprised to learn that Arthur Miller's tragedy for the common man, a play about a guy 'who had all the wrong dreams,' who is caught up in someone else's definition of success rat…
It’s been said that good design is 99% invisible. Heck, that’s the title of one of the best public radio shows/podcasts out there, if you’re curious. But just because it…
The American Theatre Wing's Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre presentation ceremony occurred last night and portions of it were broadcast via television. I would like t…
I’ll try. But I don’t think I’ll do the organization justice. One of the first times I went to see a Campo Santo play at Intersection for the Arts (for the uninitiated, Cam…
I think I had Twitter open for all of ten seconds today when this story popped up: Chipotle cups will now feature stories by Jonathan Safran Foer, Toni Morrison, and other authors. I didn…
ED NOTE: A part of what I intend to be a continued spotlight in this space on applied theatre – a follow-up to the post here. If you run or participate in an applied theatre program an…
ED NOTE: I have a love for applied theatre (as exemplified by longtime friends Rehabilitation Through the Arts and Conspire Theatre and in the interest of shining a light such programs I&…
We’ve Named the Problem. Now what? Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last week (in which case, I hope it's been warm!), if you're in the theatermaking world, you are …
Peter Marks (Washington Post) hosted a conversation with DC area artistic directors about representation of women and people of color on our stages. Participants: Paul Tetreault, Molly Smith…
[View the story "#TheSummit" on Storify]
The Cleveland Playhouse Board invited me to speak at their board retreat last Saturday. The talk was well received, so I thought I would share the text here. Thank you all for bringing me he…
I keep writing about collaboration between theatre making organizations, but until now, I haven't given a very clear picture of what form that collaboration should take. Here's a stab at it.…
On Saturday the 8th of June, I hosted a session of the Theatre Communications Group Conference in Dallas to prompt discussion of ideas to increase playgoing. It drew a great group of people …
This speech was presented at the opening session of the Audience Engagement track at this year’s TCG Conference in Dallas, June 6-8, 2013. The conference was designed on an academic th…
There's been a lot of talk online recently about the need for women playwrights to be better represented, have more opportunities, and be, if you'll excuse the vagary, more equal. That's lov…
